A 73-year-old woman who is suing in relation to her cervical smear slides has, through her lawyers, pleaded for mediation talks to begin in her case.
Retired nurse and widow Joan Lucey from Kerry who has terminal cervical cancer has only weeks to live her counsel told the High Court today.
She has sued the HSE and two laboratories and her case is set to go ahead before the High Court in two weeks time.
Liam Reidy SC instructed by Aisling Maher of Cantillons solicitors told the court today the woman is in the last number of weeks of her life and her side has invited the parties to the mediation table.
Counsel said the laboratories are baulking at engaging in mediation until a third party issue has been resolved.
It seems to me an absolute outrage the HSE don’t mediate with her legal team directly and deal with the other defendants later
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“It seems to me an absolute outrage the HSE don’t mediate with her legal team directly and deal with the other defendants later,” Counsel said. He added: “It is an absolute outrage in this case. She is on her deathbed.”
Mr Justice Kevin Cross urged the sides to enter in to mediation especially in this case, but he said he was not going to force somebody to mediation. He said the case is due to go ahead on February 26 in the High Court.
CervicalCheck
Joan Lucey (73) Cooleen, Dingle, Co Kerry has sued the HSE, Clinical Pathology Laboratories Incorporated (CPL) with headquarters in Austin, Texas, USA and MedLab Pathology Ltd with registered offices at Sandyford Business Park, Dublin.
She has sued in relation to the alleged, misreading or misinterpretation or misreporting of her cervical smears taken in February 2011 and August 2011.
Mrs Lucey had a cervical smear under the national screening CervicalCheck programme in February 2009. At that stage she was referred for a colposcopy and had a surgical procedure. Follow-up smears were negative.
In February 2011, Mrs Lucey had another smear test which it is claimed was tested by CPL under the supervision of MedLab and this came back as negative with a recommendation for the repeat smear in six months.
It is also claimed that Mrs Lucey was referred to the Scotia Clinic, Tralee, Co Kerry on April 29, 2011 where a swab came back as negative, and she was advised she was HPV negative.
Annual smear tests
In August 2011 it is claimed Mrs Lucey had a repeat smear which was tested by the CPL under the supervision of MedLab and was reported as negative with a repeat smear recommended in a year.
It is claimed for the subsequent seven years Mrs Lucey had annual smear tests taken by her GP all of which were reported as negative . She also had a smear test and a HPV test in October 2018 which were reported as negative in May 2019. After that Mrs Lucey got a letter from CervicalCheck advising that she had completed her cervical screening.
In December 2018, Mrs Lucey began to suffer from fatigue and developed lower back pain in May 2019. She was later admitted to hospital for investigations and an MRI scan showed cervical cancer.
Cell changes
It is claimed that notwithstanding undergoing regular smear tests as advised cytological cell changes in Mrs Lucey were allegedly allowed to develop and spread unidentified, unmonitored and untreated until she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in July 2019.
It is alleged that Mrs Lucey was denied the opportunity to receive and benefit from timely curative treatment and her disease was allegedly allowed to develop unhindered. All the claims are denied.
Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL) has also joined as a third party in the proceedings consultant obstetrician Dr Mary McCaffrey of The Scotia Clinic, Tralee , Co Kerry.
CPL has claimed there was an alleged failure to assess or investigate Mrs Lucey when she attended the clinic on April 29 2011 and it it is claimed it resulted in an alleged missed opportunity to diagnose pre invasive disease. The claims are denied.
